International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies - CompSysTech 2005

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A General Classification of Mobile Learning Systems

Evgeniya Georgieva, Angel Smrikarov, Tsvetozar Georgiev

Abstract: The mobile education became more popular and accessible worldwide. Today there is a big
variety of solutions for such systems. In this paper a general classification of existing mobile learning
systems is made. A 3D visualisation of this classification according to three indicators of the usability is
presented. It gives a possibility easy to take into account the differences in the implementation of the
systems as well as their common characteristics.
Key words: Mobile Learning, Education.

INTRODUCTION
The mobile learning is based on the use of mobile devices (pocket size computers
(PDAs), cell phones, smart phones, notebooks or Tablet PCs) anywhere at anytime [4].
These devices must support wireless technology and have a possibility to present teaching
materials, and to realise an asynchronous/synchronous communication between learners
and teachers.
The existing wide range of mobile devices and wireless technologies gives an
opportunity to realise different systems for mobile education. For example some of these
systems can be used only in the area of a university or company, as at the same time
other systems ensure a broader usage outside the educational institutions. Some of the
systems support user access only to the administrative information, while other systems
support an access to educational materials.
In the literature there are various classifications of mobile learning systems. These
classifications concern: support of mobile devices, usage of wireless communication
technologies, the possibilities to access the required information and the type of this
information. The known classifications often apply one or two indicators, which concern the
information, communication or education technologies used in the systems.
According to the information and communication technologies (ICT) the systems are
classified by the type of mobile devices (Notebooks, TabletPCs, PDAs, cell phones or
smart phones) and the type of wireless communication technologies (GSM, IEEE 802.11,
Bluetooth, etc.) which they support. One of the technical classifications written in the
literature [9] uses two indicators the portability of the devices and the personal use
ability.
The classification regarding educational technologies is made in relation to the
supported information and the method to access it. According to this classification the
mobile learning systems are divided in several groups. For example, in the literature
sources [1, 10] the systems are classified in respect to the abilities to support on-line
and/or off-line access to the learning materials. In [6, 11] the systems are classified
according to the user abilities to reach learning materials in the university area (on-
campus) or outside university (off-campus). In [2, 7] the systems are divided regarding the
information connected to the educational process they support learning and/or
administrative.
The existing classifications have big disadvantages since they dont include the
whole variety of different systems and dont correspond to their progress. These
classifications also dont account for the complexity of modern mobile learning systems
and the support of e-learning standards and specifications.
An attempt to generalise and to classify the main types of the existing mobile learning
systems is made in this paper. A 3D visualisation of this classification according to three
indicators is presented.

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LAYOUT
In the literature source [9] the mobility is examined from the viewpoint of the
portability and personality. Since each mobile learning system supports the use of mobile
devices and wireless communicational technologies the authors suggest a general
classification which considers systems which support devices belonging to the first
(marked) quadrant of fig.1 [9] and are portable and personal at the same time.
Personal
Shared
Portable Static
Videoconferencing
Electronic
whiteboards
Kiosks
Classroom
response systems
Mobile phones
PDAs Games
consoles
Tablet PCs
Laptops
1 2
3 4

Figure 1. A mobile technologies classification [9]

Our classification (fig.2) covers the existing classifications and adds two more
according to the support of e-learning standards and according to the communication
between students and teachers. The proposed classification gives a possibility to evaluate
the varieties of realisations and requirements to these systems ICT (mobile devices and
wireless communication technologies) and educational (the type of supported information
and the access method to it).
According to the information and communication technologies the proposed
classification is based on the following main indicators:
- the type of supported mobile devices - notebooks, TabletPCs, PDAs, cell phones or
smart phones;
- the type of wireless communication which is used to access learning materials and
administrative information - GPRS, GSM, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, IrDA.
According to the educational technologies the proposed classification is based on the
following main indicators:
- support of synchronous and/or asynchronous education;
- support of e-learning standards;
- availability of permanent Internet connection between the mobile learning system
and the users;
- location of the users;
- access to learning materials and/or administrative services.
According to the time when the teachers and the students share information with
each other the mobile learning systems can be classified as follows:
Systems, which support synchronous education. These systems give the ability
to students to communicate in real time with teachers and other students. More
often for this purpose voice communication and chat are used. More rarely a
video communication is used.
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Systems, which support asynchronous education. In these systems the students
cant communicate in real time with teachers and other students. More often e-
mail and/or SMS are used to send asynchronous information.
Systems, which support synchronous and asynchronous education.
Notebooks
TabletPCs
PDAs
Cell phones
Smart phones
m-Learning
System
GSM
GPRS
Bluetooth
IrDA
IEEE 802.11
on-Campus
off-Campus
Learning
materials
Administrative
information
on-line
off-line
Information
Access
Location
Mobile
device
Commun.
technology
Supported No supported
Synchronous Asynchronous
Communication between
students and teachers
e-Learning standards

Figure 2. A general classification of m-learning systems

At present there are no m-learning specifications and standards. This is the reason to
include in our classification the indicator about support of e-Learning specifications and
standards. According to this the m-learning systems are divided in:
M-learning systems which dont support e-learning specifications and standards
(SCORM, AICC, etc.). At the present time the main part of mobile learning
systems (Mobile Education Platform [5], WELCOME [8], University Mobile Portal
[17], etc.) belongs to this group.
M-learning systems which support e-learning specifications and standards. To
this group can be added some e-learning platforms (Blackboard [14]) which
support e-learning standards and have a module for mobile learning.
The proposed classification according to educational technologies examines mobility
as access to learning materials and administrative services with the dependence on the
location of the users and permanent Internet connection availability.
Depending on the necessary of permanent Internet connection between the mobile
learning system and the users to reproduce the teaching materials on mobile device the
existing mobile learning systems can be divided in the following way:
Systems for on-line mobile learning. These systems require permanent
communication between the system and users mobile devices. Such systems
are for example Mobile Quest [15] and Learner Support System [20].
Systems for off-line mobile learning. The learning material is uploaded in the
users mobile device. There is no need of wireless communication between
mobile learning system and mobile devices. University 360 Mobile [16] and Agilix
Mobilizer [18] are examples for such type of systems.
Systems, which ensure both on-line and off-line mobile learning. The access to
the part of the learning materials is on-line while the access to the remaining
materials is off-line (they first must be uploaded to the memory of the mobile
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devices). Next Move [13] and Mobile ELDIT [12] are some of the systems which
support such type of mobile learning.
Depending on the location of the users the existing mobile learning systems can be
divided to three groups:
On-campus systems, which can be accessed inside the universities, schools and
companies. The typical access to such system is by using laptop computers or
Tablet PCs and via wireless network of the educational institution. The systems
Mobilizer and Navowave [19] support Tablet PCs and laptops and can be
attached to this group.
Off-campus systems, which can be accessed outside the universities, schools
and companies. The access to these systems is realised by pocket size
computers (PDA), cell phones or smart phones as these devices support long
distance wireless communications and offer more mobility than laptop computers
and Tablet PCs. The University Mobile Portal [17] is an example of such type of
system. It has the abilities to send SMSs containing news and important
messages to the users cell phones.
Systems, which can be accessed both from inside and outside the educational
institutions. The main part of the existing mobile learning systems can be
attached to this group - Mobile Education Platform [5], WELCOME [8], Mobile
ELDIT, Learner Support System.
Depending on the access to learning materials and/or administrative services existing
systems can be divided to the next three groups:
Systems for mobile learning which support an access to the educational content
materials, tests, dictionaries, etc. To this group belong systems like MobiLP
[3], Next Move, Mobilizer, Navowave, etc.
Systems for mobile learning which support an access to the educational
administrative services. Such systems can send SMSs concerning the
educational process (changes in timetable, marks of exams, etc.) to all students
or to group of students. The example of such system is Mobile Quest.
Mobile learning systems which support an access to the learning materials as
well as access to the educational organisation administrative services. The
system of this type is WELCOME.
One can see that the same system can belong to different groups. This depends on
the classification indicator and the system's characteristics. The appropriate way to
present a three-indicator classification is to use 3D diagram. In this diagram the last three
educational indicators of the classification are marked on the 3 axes (figure 3). On the
opposite side of any axis the opposite characteristic of the specific indicator is marked. In
this way any system has exactly defined place depending on its educational
characteristics.
On the horizontal axis X systems, depending on the type of the connection to the
teaching and administrative materials they support, are arranged on-line or/and off-line.
In the middle of the axis X are the systems which support two types of connection. On the
axis Y are arranged systems, depending on the location to connect to the teaching and
administrative materials they support inside the area of educational institutions (campus)
or outside them. In the middle of this axis are the systems which support two types of
location. Together axis X and axis Y make a plane on which systems with six different
characteristics can be disposed. On vertical axes Z mobile learning systems are arranged
depending on if they support access to administrative or teaching materials. In the middle
of this axis are the systems which support these two types of services. Together axes X, Y
and Z make a 3D orthogonal system on which systems with nine different characteristics
can be arranged.
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Systems for
on-line
m-Learning
Systems for
off-line
m-Learning
Systems for
campus based
m-Learning
Systems for
wide area
m-Learning
M-Learning systems
for students'
administrative support
M-Learning systems
for students'
educational support
X
Y
Z

Figure 3. A 3D diagram of mobile learning systems classification according to 3 indicators

The best systems according to the current educational technologies belong to the
centre of the sphere. These systems support all three types of mobile learning.
Some popular e-learning systems - Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle, etc. [14] in
particular can be used for the purposes of mobile learning through universities wireless
networks and Notebook computers. In our 3D diagram such systems belong to the front
hemisphere, because from one hand they can support on-line and off-line learning, and
from other hand they can give access to learning materials and administrative information.

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
The progress of the information and communication technologies will lead to wider
use of mobile learning systems in the educational process. At the same time these
systems will become more complex. The proposed classification and 3D visualisation give
the possibilities to easily take into account the differences in the realisations of the
systems as well as their common characteristics.
The future work of the authors will be connected to the design and realisation of a
mobile learning system, which is to be used in the University of Rousse.

REFERENCES
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[3] Chan, Y. Y., Leung C. H. and Wu A. K. W. and Chan S. C., MobiLP: A Mobile
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system, which
supports on-line
and off-line m-
Learning in the
campus
e-Learning systems
(Blackboard, WebCT,
Moodle, etc.)
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Evgeniya Georgieva, MSc, Department of Computing, University of Rousse, Phone:
+359 82 888 577, E-mail: EGeorgieva@ecs.ru.acad.bg
Assoc. Prof. Angel Smrikarov, PhD, Department of Computing, University of Rousse,
Phone: +359 82 888 743, E-mail: ASmrikarov@ecs.ru.acad.bg
Principal Lecturer Tsvetozar Georgiev, PhD, Department of Computing, University of
Rousse, Phone: +359 82 888 276, E-mail: TGeorgiev@ecs.ru.acad.bg
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